How to avoid dry skin

 

Are you prone to dry skin? If you think your diet has nothing to do with it, your face may beg to differ.

The Suspects: Alcohol, Coffee, Poor Diet

In the short term, alcohol can cause dehydration, which can cause dry skin.

“For women, the recommendation is no more than two standard drinks a day on average,” says dermatologist Ann-Maree Kurzydlo, who recommends limiting consumption and alternating alcoholic drinks with water. “One or two alcohol-free days should be had per week.”

Caffeine is a diuretic and can also lead to dehydration of the skin - so steer clear of energy drinks as well as tea and coffee.

Meanwhile, dietitian Dr Joanna McMillan says diet can also play havoc with skin.

“A lack of fats in the diet can lead to dry skin, whereas good fats such as oily fish, avocado and olive oil deliver fat-soluble nutrients, are anti-inflammatory and promote skin health,” she says.

“Certain nutrients are important for the skin including vitamins A, C, E and many antioxidants. A diet rich in plant foods – veg, fruit, nuts, seeds, legumes and wholegrains – boosts intake of these factors.”

Discover more way to eat your way to healthy skin.

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Flu Shot Helps Heart Failure Patients Avoid Hospital

WEDNESDAY, June 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Getting a flu shot reduces heart failure patients’ risk of hospitalization, a new study shows.

“Uptake of the flu vaccination in heart failure patients is relatively low, ranging from less than 20 percent in low and middle-income countries to 50 to 70 percent in high income countries like the U.K.,” said study author Kazem Rahimi. He is deputy director of the George Institute for Global Health at the University of Oxford in England.

“This may partly be because there is no strong evidence to support the recommendation in these patients,” he said. Also, some research had suggested that vaccination might be less effective in heart failure patients than in the general population because of their blunted immune response, he added.

Heart failure means the heart is no longer able to pump blood efficiently enough to meet the body’s needs. It’s one of the most common reasons for hospital admissions among seniors, according to the American Heart Association.

For the new study, Rahimi’s team analyzed data from more than 59,000 heart failure patients in the United Kingdom.

They found that flu vaccination was associated with a 30 percent lower risk of hospitalization for heart problems, a 16 percent lower risk of hospitalization for respiratory infections, and a 4 percent lower risk of hospitalization for any reason up to 300 days after vaccination.

The findings “do not suggest that influenza infection causes [heart attack] or other cardiovascular events,” Rahimi said in a European College of Cardiology news release.

“A more likely explanation for the reduction in risk of cardiovascular hospitalization is that vaccination reduces the likelihood of an [influenza] infection, which could in turn trigger cardiovascular deterioration,” he said.

The findings “provide further evidence that there are likely worthwhile benefits, and on that basis more efforts are needed to ensure that heart failure patients receive an annual flu jab,” Rahimi said.

The findings were presented last week at the European College of Cardiology’s meeting on heart failure in Florence, Italy. Findings presented at meetings are usually considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

More information

The American Heart Association has more about heart failure.

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Most Americans Support Rise in Legal Smoking Age

WEDNESDAY, June 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Highlighting tobacco’s growing unpopularity, a new survey finds most Americans support pushing the legal smoking age even higher.

Across all regions of the United States, poll respondents gave an overwhelming thumbs-up to raising the legal age for buying tobacco products to 19, 20 or even 21.

Support also “seems to cross political lines, and it is one policy measure that the majority of those surveyed can agree on,” said lead researcher Dr. Adam Goldstein, of the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

His team asked more than 4,800 adults nationwide if they supported raising the minimum age for tobacco purchases to 19, 20 or 21. A majority of people in all regions of the country were in favor, the pollsters found.

Support ranged from more than 59 percent in a seven-state Midwestern region that included Iowa and Kansas, to about 73 percent in a four-state region of the South that included Texas and Louisiana.

Support in the South Atlantic region, which included North Carolina, seven other states and the District of Columbia, was about 68 percent, the survey showed.

Looked at in terms of demographics, women, non-whites, Hispanics, non-smokers and those older than 21 were more supportive of raising the minimum age. The survey also found more support for boosting the legal age to 21, rather than just 19 or 20.

“With these findings, policy makers and public health advocates can move forward knowing that people in their states support raising the minimum legal age for selling tobacco products, and that this is an issue that is not viewed as partisan,” Goldstein said in a university news release.

On Jan. 1, Hawaii became the first state to increase the legal age of tobacco sales to 21, and California soon followed. A number of counties and cities, including New York City, have increased the minimum legal age.

“With the strong support indicated in our data, I think we will continue to see strong momentum. It appears likely that, increasingly, lawmakers are going to be interested in doing this,” Goldstein suggested.

Boosting age limits does seem to matter. According to a 2015 National Academy of Medicine report, making 21 the legal age for buying tobacco nationwide would lead to a 12 percent drop in the smoking rate.

That rate is already plummeting. Just last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the U.S. adult smoking rate fell from 17 percent in 2014 to 15 percent in 2015 — the largest one-year decline in more than 20 years.

“By restricting tobacco use to people 21 and older, the compelling evidence is that you have less people who end up using it. They don’t end up taking up smoking and tobacco,” Goldstein said.

“And if you cut down on adolescents using tobacco, you’ll ultimately cut down on how many adults use tobacco, and then you cut down on tobacco-related diseases like heart disease and cancer,” he added.

More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more about youth and tobacco.

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Girl With Zika Birth Defect Born at New Jersey Hospital

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, June 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — A woman from Honduras who apparently became infected with the Zika virus in her home country gave birth Tuesday in a New Jersey hospital to a baby girl with the birth defect characteristic of the disease, officials said.

The baby has an abnormally small head, a condition called microcephaly that also results in an underdeveloped brain, hospital officials said.

Dr. Manny Alvarez, chairman of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at Hackensack University Medical Center, said the 31-year-old mother knew she was infected with the virus before coming to visit relatives in New Jersey. Scans performed late last week showed the girl was underweight for her gestational age, so doctors delivered the baby by cesarean section, The New York Times reported.

Alvarez said he believes the baby is the first baby born in the Northeast with Zika infection, which is typically transmitted by mosquitoes.

“It tells you that Zika is real,” he said. “There is still a lot of work to be done insofar as controlling this virus.”

A baby was born in Hawaii earlier this year with microcephaly.

On Monday, U.N. health officials recommended that women planning to become pregnant should wait at least eight weeks before trying to conceive if they or their partner live in — or are returning from — areas where Zika virus infections are occurring,.

The vast majority of Zika infections have occurred in Latin America, with Brazil the hot zone with an estimated 5,000 cases of microcephaly. There have been no reports of Zika-induced microcephaly contracted in the United States. But U.S. health officials have said they expect to see Zika infections in Gulf Coast states such as Florida, Louisiana and Texas as mosquito season picks up.

Mosquito bites remain the most common source of infection of the Zika virus. But transmission of the virus through sex is more common than previously thought, World Health Organization officials said Monday. They had previously recommended a four-week abstinence before trying to conceive.

And if the male partner has had symptoms of Zika infection, couples should wait six months before trying to have a baby, the WHO officials said.

Four out of five people infected with Zika don’t develop any symptoms. Those who do most often suffer from mild symptoms that include fever, rash, joint pain or red eyes.

The true risk of Zika is to a developing fetus.

Earlier this month, U.S. health officials reported that the number of pregnant women in the United States infected with the Zika virus had tripled because cases were now being counted in a more comprehensive way.

So far, an estimated 280 infected women are being followed in the United States and its territories, according to two registries that have been created by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Previously, only cases of pregnant women who had Zika-related symptoms or pregnancy complications were being tallied, CDC officials said. But recently published reports have found that some pregnant women show no symptoms of Zika infection, yet still give birth to babies with microcephaly.

To limit any potential spread of Zika virus via mosquitoes, health officials on the federal, state and local level are deploying a three-pronged strategy: improving mosquito control; expanding their ability to test for Zika; and urging the public to protect themselves against mosquitoes.

Women of child-bearing age who live in an active Zika region should protect themselves from mosquito bites by wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants, using mosquito repellent when outside, and staying indoors as much as possible, according to the CDC.

President Barack Obama has asked Congress to allocate $1.9 billion to combat the Zika threat, but lawmakers have yet to agree on a spending package.

More information

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on the Zika virus.

This Q&A will tell you what you need to know about Zika.

To see the CDC list of sites where Zika virus is active and may pose a threat to pregnant women, click here.

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Talking, Texting Teen Drivers Take Deadly Toll

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, June 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — There’s an epidemic of distracted driving that’s maiming — and in too many cases — killing people in crashes involving teen drivers, a new report shows.

A full 60 percent of car crashes involving teenagers occur while these young and inexperienced drivers are talking, texting or are otherwise distracted. And this happens far more often during the summer, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).

“I think everyone gets that distracted driving is bad and you shouldn’t do it, but until now parents didn’t have data in front of them to suggest that it was a much bigger problem that they should be concerned about for their teens,” said Jake Nelson, director of traffic safety advocacy and research at the AAA.

For the study, researchers at the University of Iowa and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety analyzed the moments leading up to a crash in more than 2,200 videos from in-car dashboard cameras.

The researchers found these top three distractions for teens:

• Talking to passengers accounted for 15 percent of crashes.
• Talking, texting or operating a cellphone accounted for 12 percent of crashes.
• Looking at something inside the car accounted for 11 percent of crashes.

According to the AAA report, released June 1, more than 1,000 people die in crashes involving teen drivers every year. And summer is the most dangerous season, when the average number of deaths involving teen drivers aged 16 to 19 increases 16 percent per day compared with other times of the year.

In the report, the researchers also found teens were more likely to be texting or looking at the phone than talking on it.

Such distractions can cut a young life short. Just ask Martha Tessmer.

Her 16-year-old son, Donovan, was three weeks from starting his senior year in high school in 2007 when he was killed in a car crash.

He was in a car driven by another teen. The other teen passengers were goading the girl to go faster, Tessmer said. The teasing continued until she lost control and crashed the car into one tree and then another. None of the kids was wearing a seat belt and Donovan was thrown from the car and killed. The others survived, Tessmer said.

The other passengers and the driver later told Tessmer they were afraid when they were going so fast, and if someone had spoken up she would have slowed down.

For Tessmer, the lesson is that “if they’re afraid, whether they’re the driver or the passenger, their one voice could be what saved their life and the life of the other people in that car. Don’t ever hesitate to speak up.”

Teens should know this could happen to them, Tessmer said. “It only takes one bad choice in a car to become reckless and distracted, and all the good decisions in life are canceled out — that’s what happened to Donovan,” she said.

AAA’s Nelson said distracted driving makes crashes more likely because it “makes you less likely to react quickly to a dangerous situation.”

Also, a phenomenon called “attention blindness” — when you don’t see something right in front of you because you’re focused on something else — can be deadly, he said.

Nelson noted that many states now have graduated driving licenses, which make teens safer drivers because they have limits on the number of teen passengers and also the times of day when they can drive.

Parents are the most effective deterrent to distracted driving, Nelson said. “The single most important step parents can take is to model safe driving behavior, and talk to their kids over and over and over again about the dangers of distracted driving,” he said.

Keeping cellphones out of the hands of teen drivers is a top priority for AAA, Nelson said.

The association urges parents to teach their teens about the dangers of distracted driving with these tips:

• Talk early and often about the dangers of distraction.
• Have a parent-teen agreement that sets rules against distracted driving.
• Teach by example — keep your eyes on the road while driving.

Dr. Barbara Pena, research director of the emergency department at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, agrees that parents have a pivotal role to play in making sure their teens drive safely.

“Parents need to be on top of them, reminding them of the dangers of distracted driving and leading them by example,” she said.

More information

Visit the American Automobile Association for more on distracted driving.

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Bar pull-ups: tips and perks

Increase your back strength with bar pull-ups. Here's how to get it right.

A strong back is integral to a strong, high functioning, lean body, and pull-ups are like a laser pointer for your flip side. They’re also bloody tough.

“Pull-ups are one of the toughest bodyweight exercises you can do and they do take a long time to master,” says  PT and founder of business KE Fitness Kris Etheridge.

Yet beginners who withstand the burn will witness rapid gains. “You’re going to have to be patient, but you should be improving in strength each week when you first start out.” Etheridge advises strengthening your biceps and upper back using the assisted pull-up/chin-up machine, lat pull-down machine and seated row machine. “If you don’t have access to these machines, a great way to work on your chin-ups or pull-ups is to loop a large power band (a thick circular rubber band) over a chin-up bar and put one of your feet in it,” Etheridge says. “This will help lift some of your body weight. As you get better, you can change to lighter bands until you’re achieving this all on your own.” When performing pull-ups, remember to use your lats (the broadest muscle on your back) and not just your arms.

Perks: “Pull-ups target the upper back, particularly the lats, and also work the biceps and abdominals,” Etheridge says. Not only will pull-ups become easier the more you practise due to the increased muscle you’re producing in conjunction with a loss of body fat, but these will also help for advancing in other exercises. “Having a strong upper back will allow you to progress to more challenging exercises like Olympic lifting,” Etheridge says. 

Injury insurance:  If you’re overweight, be careful not to overdo this exercise at the start, as pull-ups are very demanding. Generally speaking, the bigger you are, the more difficult you will find pull-ups as you have more weight to lift. There’s a reason most rock climbers are lean after all! If you have shoulder, upper back or neck injuries, ask a professional if pull-ups are an appropriate exercise for your needs. 

Pull-up challenge

Instructions: Emphasising the correct technique, INCLUDE PULL-UPS IN YOUR WORKOUT TWO TO THREE TIMES PER WEEK.

Week one–two - Using the heavy power band, perform two sets of 15 reps. 

Week three–four - Change to the moderate strength resistance band, and perform three sets of eight reps. 

Week five - Reduce the resistance to the light band and perform four sets of three reps. 

Week six - Perform three sets of three reps of negative pull-ups. Here you’re avoiding the pulling up phase and just doing the lowering movement without a band to help. It should take you three to five seconds to lower, and the slower, the better!  

Once you can perform the above comfortably, you’re ready to try the real thing!

Looking for more upper body workouts? Try this toning upper body workout. 

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Bar pull-ups: tips and perks

Increase your back strength with bar pull-ups. Here's how to get it right.

A strong back is integral to a strong, high functioning, lean body, and pull-ups are like a laser pointer for your flip side. They’re also bloody tough.

“Pull-ups are one of the toughest bodyweight exercises you can do and they do take a long time to master,” says  PT and founder of business KE Fitness Kris Etheridge.

Yet beginners who withstand the burn will witness rapid gains. “You’re going to have to be patient, but you should be improving in strength each week when you first start out.” Etheridge advises strengthening your biceps and upper back using the assisted pull-up/chin-up machine, lat pull-down machine and seated row machine. “If you don’t have access to these machines, a great way to work on your chin-ups or pull-ups is to loop a large power band (a thick circular rubber band) over a chin-up bar and put one of your feet in it,” Etheridge says. “This will help lift some of your body weight. As you get better, you can change to lighter bands until you’re achieving this all on your own.” When performing pull-ups, remember to use your lats (the broadest muscle on your back) and not just your arms.

Perks: “Pull-ups target the upper back, particularly the lats, and also work the biceps and abdominals,” Etheridge says. Not only will pull-ups become easier the more you practise due to the increased muscle you’re producing in conjunction with a loss of body fat, but these will also help for advancing in other exercises. “Having a strong upper back will allow you to progress to more challenging exercises like Olympic lifting,” Etheridge says. 

Injury insurance:  If you’re overweight, be careful not to overdo this exercise at the start, as pull-ups are very demanding. Generally speaking, the bigger you are, the more difficult you will find pull-ups as you have more weight to lift. There’s a reason most rock climbers are lean after all! If you have shoulder, upper back or neck injuries, ask a professional if pull-ups are an appropriate exercise for your needs. 

Pull-up challenge

Instructions: Emphasising the correct technique, INCLUDE PULL-UPS IN YOUR WORKOUT TWO TO THREE TIMES PER WEEK.

Week one–two - Using the heavy power band, perform two sets of 15 reps. 

Week three–four - Change to the moderate strength resistance band, and perform three sets of eight reps. 

Week five - Reduce the resistance to the light band and perform four sets of three reps. 

Week six - Perform three sets of three reps of negative pull-ups. Here you’re avoiding the pulling up phase and just doing the lowering movement without a band to help. It should take you three to five seconds to lower, and the slower, the better!  

Once you can perform the above comfortably, you’re ready to try the real thing!

Looking for more upper body workouts? Try this toning upper body workout. 

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Calling Your Kid ‘Fat’ Could Be Counterproductive

TUESDAY, May 31, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Two studies highlight the complex relationship between parents’ perceptions and their children’s weights.

One study found that no matter a child’s actual weight, those whose parents believed they were overweight gained more weight. The other study found that more than 82 percent of parents underestimate the weight of their overweight or obese children.

The first study included more than 3,500 Australian children, aged 4 to 5 years at the start of the study. Of those children, nearly 20 percent were overweight or obese and more than 75 percent were normal weight. Only 20 percent of parents of children who were overweight correctly identified their child as being overweight.

But regardless of weight, children whose parents believed they were overweight gained more weight by age 13 than those whose parents correctly or incorrectly believed they were the right weight, according to the report.

“Contrary to popular belief, parental identification of child overweight is not protective against further weight gain, regardless of whether or not the child actually is overweight. Rather, it is associated with more weight gain across childhood,” wrote study author Eric Robinson, from the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom, and a colleague.

The study authors added that further research is needed to understand how parental perceptions of child weight may counterintuitively contribute to obesity.

The authors noted there is growing evidence that the stigma of being labeled overweight may lead children to overeat and change the way parents interact with their child, such as giving them food for comfort.

The study was presented Tuesday at the European Obesity Summit in Sweden and was also published online May 31 in the journal Pediatrics.

The second study included the parents of more than 2,800 children from the Netherlands. The youngsters were 5 to 6 years old. Researchers found that 70 percent of parents correctly estimated their child’s weight.

However, among parents of overweight or obese children, 82 percent underestimated their child’s weight, the study revealed.

Parents in families where more than half the members were overweight were more likely to underestimate the weight of overweight and obese children than parents in families where less than half the members were overweight, the findings showed.

The study also found that socioeconomic status affected the rates of overweight and obese children — the rate was 16 percent in poor families compared to 11 percent in wealthy families.

Socioeconomic status also appeared to play a role in whether or not parents recognized that their children were overweight or obese. About one-third of wealthier parents correctly identified excess weight in their kids. By contrast, under 20 percent of parents from low or moderate socioeconomic families were able to do so, the study authors found.

“Parents are unlikely to adequately perceive overweight in their children. Perception of overweight and obesity in children concerns underestimation in four out of five cases,” Grietje Lijklema, from the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, and colleagues wrote.

“Parents with high socioeconomic status are better at correctly perceiving their child is overweight but, overall, perception of a child’s weight depends the most on the degree of overweight within the child’s family,” the researchers reported.

This study was also presented Tuesday at the obesity meeting. The findings by Lijklema’s team should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on childhood overweight and obesity.

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Women With Migraine May Face Higher Threat of Heart Disease, Stroke

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, May 31, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Women who suffer from migraine headaches may have a slightly increased risk of heart disease or stroke, a new study suggests.

“Migraine should be considered a marker for increased risk of cardiovascular disease, at least in women,” said lead researcher Dr. Tobias Kurth, director of the Institute of Public Health at Charite-Universitatsmedizin in Berlin, Germany.

But, Kurth cautioned that this study can’t prove that migraines cause heart attack or stroke, only that they may make these events more likely.

Also, men may be similarly affected. “We have no reason to believe that this is limited to women,” Kurth said.

Migraines are headaches marked by intense throbbing or pulsing, often accompanied by nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light and sound. They had previously been linked to an increased risk for stroke, but this new study also ties them to possible heart attack, death and the need for heart surgery, the researchers noted.

“Physicians should be aware of the association between migraine and cardiovascular disease, and women with migraine should be evaluated for their risk,” Kurth said.

For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 116,000 U.S. women who took part in the Nurses’ Health Study II. At the start of the study, the women were aged 25 to 42, free from heart disease, and were followed from 1989 to 2011.

At the study’s start, 15 percent of the women had migraines. During 20 years of follow-up, more than 1,300 women had a heart attack or stroke and 223 died from one of those conditions, the researchers found.

Compared with women who did not have migraines, women who had migraines had a 50 percent greater risk for heart attack, stroke or surgery to open blocked heart arteries, the study suggested.

Specifically, women with migraines had about a 39 percent higher risk of heart attack, a 62 percent higher risk of stroke and a 73 percent higher risk of heart surgery, Kurth said.

In addition, migraine was linked with a 37 percent higher risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke, the findings suggested.

These associations remained after the researchers accounted for other risk factors, such as smoking, high blood pressure, age and use of oral contraceptives.

The report was published May 31 in the journal BMJ.

Dr. Rebecca Burch is an instructor in neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, and co-author of an accompanying journal editorial. She said, “We can add migraine to the list of known risk factors for heart disease, which can be challenging because migraine tends to occur earlier in life and cardiovascular disease tends to show up later in life.”

The apparent increase in risk of heart disease and stroke related to migraines is likely to be small, so it may not make a large difference to an individual person, Burch said. “But because migraine is so common, that small increase in risk may be much more meaningful when we consider the population as a whole,” she said.

Since it isn’t known why there’s this apparent risk and what can be done to reduce it, Burch said her advice is “not to make any changes to the treatment of people with migraine based on these findings.

“It is important to make sure we are evaluating cardiovascular risk among women with migraine and doing what we know helps to reduce that risk, like advising regular exercise and managing blood pressure,” she said.

More information

Visit the American Migraine Foundationfor more on migraine headaches.

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Baby’s Early Walking May Mean Stronger Bones as Teen

TUESDAY, May 31, 2016 (HealthDay News) — For all those parents who fret about how quickly their baby will learn to walk, read up.

British scientists report that toddlers who can walk, run and jump by the time they are 18 months old may have stronger bones as teenagers.

The researchers suggested that their findings could help identify those at increased risk for osteoporosis and broken bones later life.

“The findings are intriguing, as they provide a link which wasn’t previously understood, primarily that how we move as a young child can have ramifications for our bone strength even 16 years later,” said lead researcher Dr. Alex Ireland. He’s with Manchester Metropolitan School of Healthcare Science in England.

“We believe that stronger muscles could act as a ‘marker’ for this,” Ireland said in a university news release. “Being more active gives you stronger muscles, which can then apply bigger forces to the bones as we walk, run or jump, helping to strengthen bones as we grow older.”

For the research, the study authors examined data compiled on more than 2,300 people born in the 1990s.

The participants’ movement was assessed when they were 18 months old. The size, shape and mineral density of their hip and shin bones were also measured when they were 17 years old.

Activities such as walking, running and jumping put stress on the bones, which can make them wider, thicker and subsequently stronger, the researchers said.

The study also found that toddlers who walked early had larger muscles and may be more likely to engage in physical activity when they are older. The researchers noted that previous studies have shown that variations in muscle size accounts for about 50 percent of the difference in kids’ bone strength by the age of 17.

Early physical activity and exercise had greater effects on bone strength among the men than the women, the study authors added.

“Importantly, the results could have implications for later life by helping medical practitioners to anticipate and detect those who are at a greater risk of osteoporosis or fractures, thus helping them to devise prevention and coping strategies,” said Ireland. “For example, attainment of these movement skills at an early age can be easily improved even by simple parent-led walking practice at home.”

The study findings were published recently in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

More information

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has more about bone health.

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